Appeal No. 1997-1369
Application No. 08/224,588
13 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as unpatentable over
the combined disclosures of Dickey, Heitmann, Breuers and
Ryan. Claims 4 and 11 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as
unpatentable over the combined disclosures of Dickey,
Heitmann, Breuers and Bottomley.
We have carefully evaluated the claims, specification and
applied prior art, including all of the arguments advanced by
the examiner and appellant in support of their respective
positions. This evaluation leads us to conclude that the
examiner’s
§ 103 rejections are not well founded. For the reasons well
articulated by appellant at pages 9 through 16 of his Brief,
we conclude that the examiner has not established a prima
facie case of obviousness within the meaning of 35 U.S.C. §
103. We only add that the examiner has not properly given
weight to the recited means-plus-function elements,
particularly the recited “actuator means,” in claims 1 and 8
consistent with 35 U.S.C.
§ 112, paragraph 6. See Al-Site Corp. v. VSI Int'l, Inc.,
7
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